Residents in Monsignor Innoċenż Zammit Street in Msida are incredulous after their road, completed just three months ago, was dug up again over the weekend.
Residents were surprised to see two jackhammers on Friday but thought little of it.
“This road has looked like a war zone since the beginning of the year and we were finally able to use it again at the end of summer, after enduring endless weeks of mud when it is raining and clouds of dust when windy. Now, they’ve dug it up again and even left the gutter uncovered,” one irate resident told Times of Malta.
The “nightmare” they lived through over the months turned into reality that evening when workers turned up and began digging up the road that had only recently been completed. Much to their amazement, when they asked workers what was happening, they were told an electricity cable was being replaced.
Work continued over the weekend.
This road has looked like a war zone
Who is responsible?
A spokesman for Infrastructure Malta said the trenching works were being done to lay new underground cables for a new development in a nearby street. The cables were requested by third parties after the road project had been completed. “These excavations, which are being carried out by another entity to service a new development, could not be avoided. Infrastructure Malta asked the entity involved to reinstate the road to its current newly-built condition, including resurfacing of the road’s entire width where the existing surface was being dug up,” the spokesman said.
Asked which entity he was referring to, he declined to name it.
He said Triq Monsignor Innocenz Zammit had been rebuilt during the first three months of the year, part of it for the first time.
Infrastructure Malta upgraded several underground distribution networks, as requested by the service providers during the preceding consultation and coordination phase.
It also built new pavements, laid new foundations and a fresh asphalt surface.
The works cost approximately €74,000, the spokesman said when asked.